Dramatic leaps in mobile phone technology means that many new generation handsets have a GPS chip installed, which pinpoints the user's exact location.

It is expected to prove useful for many of the 170,000 people attending the Somerset festival, eradicating the usual stumblings in the dark associated with such events.

It will allow users to save the coordinates of where they pitched their tent then guide them back to it after a long day's partying. The technology can also be used to find friends, cars and food stalls.

GPS is the latest in a series of technological advances helping to bring music festivals into the 21st Century.

Visitors to next month's O2 festival in Hyde Park will be given swipe cards providing access to luxury lavatories, replete with toilet paper and handwash.

Those subscribing will be issued with wrist bands containing a special chip that not only opens up the toilets but also allows them to get drinks more quickly at the festival bars.

"Technology is a nice way to make people's lives easier," an O2 spokesman said. Orange has also launched a series of hi-tech initiatives to modernise the festival scene.

In 2004, the firm designed a Text Me Home Tent, which allowed the user to text a unique number which would make their tent light up. This year, Orange will have a wind-powered ReCharge pod at Glastonbury which it says can boost the batteries of around 100 mobile phones an hour.

The firm will also be testing prototypes of its dance-powered charger. This consists of an arm band containing a system of weights and magnets which create an electrical current to top-up a storage battery as the wearer moves to the music.